November 14, 2018

Achieving global attention for his stunning moment at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he flashed a $1 pocket-sized copy of the Constitution to lecture then-candidate Donald Trump about the Bill of Rights, Harvard-trained lawyer and activist Khizr Khan will reflect on the humanitarian protections, dignities, and liberties the Constitution affords Americans.

Passionately defending these humanitarian values instilled in him and his family, including his son, Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in 2004 while serving in Baqubah, Iraq, and was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, Khan, a Gold Star father, focuses his work on immigration and international business law. He also founded a pro bono project to provide legal services for the families of men and women serving in the military. “I don’t call these the ‘Bill of Rights and amendments to the Constitution,’ I call them ‘human dignities’ that we all cherish, that we all aspire to have in our life,” Khan said. “Mankind has come to a point where we have to look at each other with equal dignity.”

From stories of Khan comforting children who fear separation from their family members under President Trump’s “muslim ban,” to the anecdote of the Khan’s becoming the “mom and pop” of the University of Virginia’s Army R.O.T.C. (where Humayun had been inspired to enlist) Khizr Khan’s humanity, compassion, and reverence for the United States Constitution shine.

In 2017, Kahn released his aptly named memoir, An American Family: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice, which chronicles the families immigration to the United States and their pursuit of the American Dream. The New York Times Book Review called it “Moving... a story about family and faith, told with a poet’s sensibility... Khizr Khan’s book can teach all of us what real American patriotism looks like.”

Join us for this profoundly moving and edifying call to ensure that the US remains a bulwark for humanitarian principles.

Funded through generous Anonymous Friends of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies.